A total of 3,500km of new high-speed railways are expected to be put into use this year, despite safety concerns and funding shortages that led to the halting of several rail projects last year.

Yang Zhongmin, director of the Ministry of Railways’ planning department, said that all four of the planned north-south rail high-speed lines will be complete, reported People's Daily.

One of the four high-speed lines, running between Beijing and Shanghai, opened in June last year. The others will connect Beijing and Guangzhou, Beijing and Harbin in northeast China, and cities on the southeast coast. When these projects are completed, the length of China's high-speed network will exceed 10,000km.